All about lava...

Hallo to all!

I spent the last week on "Big Island" with lovely friends of mine.
Big Island is always fascinating with all the new and young lava around. Last year there was a big outbreak and a big part of the island got a new "coat" of shiny black lava. Fortunately (for me), lava is still flowing in tiny amounts. You can see it flowing in the the sea and also on the surface. So I spent some time viewing the lava and the surreal landscape generated by it.

I think it is really great!
Here are the pictures. :-)

I hope you are all fine and I heard summer finally arrived in Europe :)
I am sending you best regards!

XXX, Renate

La Amazonia - one of the most wonderful places in the world

Here is my entry for the Amazon region: IT WAS INCREDIBLE! The landscape, the jungle, the colours, all the water, the silence, the sunsets, the sunrises, the sounds, the noise, the athmosphere, the anmials, the peace.. the beauty of that place just kept me breathless!!..for days.

I spent about 12 days in the area. During that time I did a 4 days/3 nights Kayak trip through the jungle. We camped every night somewhere in the middle of the jungle, where my guide errected a camp for the night. The next morning we left again, paddled through the jungle and rivers, looking for the next place to camp the next evening.
Everything was hot, sweaty, humid, wet, sunny, drizzling rain, torrential rain, dirt, basic and full of moskitos. But is was wonderful!!!!!
I am so happy I did this trip. I think these were the best days of my journey so far! I tried to take pictures, but I think that nothing is really able to capture how it felt to experience the jungle this way.
My guides were marvelous, it is a miracle for me how they found their way through the multiple waterways in the jungle and how well they know everything about the jungle. We saw many animals and they had a solution for everything, just using things we found in the jungle.

I am still fascinated when I look at the picture, or close my eyes, thinking back!

I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Here are also pictures from Puerto Narino, a small town in the area.

On Sunday I will leave Columbia and will fly to Hawaii where I will spend about 2,5 weeks. Hear you soon!

Wishing you all the best, and I hope you are well!

Besos!
Renate

How Renate visited statues, Popayan and the coffee farm

Hallo,

after some time I am back online. The last two weeks I was in the Amazon region, where Internet is not available and if, very weak. So I was not able to upload anything or enter a post.

Before the Amazon, I visited San Agustín and Popayan. In San Agustín I drank my first red wine since... a long time, with some girls from San Agustin and we had a lot of fun ...and a hangover the next day :) However it was a perfect time, despite the rain.

I also encounterd the best coffee I have had so far in Columbia at the Café of Juan and Miledy. They invited me to visit the coffee farm of their parents with them to learn about the coffee plantation and the roasting and preparation. Needess to say I loved to do that. I spent a night at their finca and we visited the coffee plantation. It was an amazing experience with Juan and his family.

I was very reluctant to leave San Agustin, as I actually have now a lot of very good friends there and started to enjoy my stay very much. It was like staying with family. I was really sad to leave, that my time was running out. No change of plans possible any more. Why didn't I meet all of them earlier...however this is what happens whilst traveling... unforseen encounters. These peolpe enriched my traveling so much and I am very grateful I met them. I hope to meet them again some day! Thanks to all of you for making my stay so much better and for the amazing memories I take with me.

Here are the pictures for you.

Best Regards,
Renate

The desert with rain and other rainy parts of columbia :)

Hallo,

Somehow it seems, currently, that I cannot escape the rain for long. I deliberately chose a region now, which calls itself "Desert", thinking that at least there the precipitation should be true to its name, and thus nonexistant, but, even there I got caught in heavy rain. Fortunately I also had some hours of sun in between to wander around, but not many :)

El desierto de Tatacoa was really nice, a wonderful landscape and, as I slept at a hostel direclty in the desert, it was really very quiet during the day as well as night! So nice and peaceful, I enjoyed this very much after the loud and hectic city life of the last days.
After that I continued to "Tierradentro", an important archeological site of Columbia, with underground tumbs full of colourful paintings. It lies really remote and it was pretty straining to get there and then even more difficult to leave again. Probably due to this fact, I was the only tourist there, and also the only one wanting some food. ;) There was only one restaurant and they were more than surprised that I came along hungry. At least you can always count on "chicken" somehow. But the choices of food are very limited most of the time and sometimes I am happy to find anything at all.... ;)

I now continued to San Agustín and Popayan. I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile take a look at the pictures, if you like.

Best regards, Renate